Save Money by Doing Your (Financial) Chores

It’s easy to get so caught up in looking for new ways to make or save money that we neglect our regular financial chores. But taking care of the money you already have can prevent some losses and can help you form good habits so that it’s not so hard to reduce spending when necessary. Here are just a few financial chores that you should not overlook:

Cash your checks. I was shocked when I heard a human resource director say that one of her organization’s employees had not been cashing paychecks on time. Most checks are good only for a certain period of time (usually 90 days), and not only does failing to cash your checks cost you money but it also creates accounting pr

I don’t usually clip coupons, but I do sometimes get nice $10 off coupons from the Gap. I enter the due dates of the coupons into my google calendar, and have it email me a week before they expire. It’s a good reminder that if I was planning on buying something within the next few weeks, I should probably do it this week!

My wife and I use expired coupons all the time. The clerks scan them and sometimes notice that they’re out of date and just manually override it. I don’t think anyone’s ever challenged us or even cared. We have some that are really old. If my wife thinks they’re too old she rips off the expired date section (like it was cut out poorly) and they still always take them. This doesn’t seem to work with store-specific coupons though.

Cheap? Yes. But it saves us loads of money.

Still, the best time to use coupons is when they first come out. Frequently the companies will also have the item on sale in the store at the same time and you’ll get double savings.